West Ottawa ends season with loss to Wyoming

Friday

Feb 28, 2014 at 10:53 PMFeb 28, 2014 at 10:53 PM

By Michael.Appelgate@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4271

JENISON — Leia Sharar turned to her sideline quickly as the ball floated through the air.Her final second shot didn’t touch the rim, and as quick as she turned with her head hung low, so ended the West Ottawa girls basketball team’s season.Sharar’s shot could have sent the Class A District final against Wyoming into overtime, but good defense from the Wolves forced the junior to take a contested shot. The Panthers lost 48-46 and ended their season 18-4 overall.With less than three seconds to go, West Ottawa coach Jenna Plewes drew up a play to get the ball to forward Mikayla Martinie near the basket, but Wyoming (21-2) switched to a zone defense to deny an entry pass in the lane.The ball came out instead to the perimeter, and the Wolves were quick to contest."I’m proud of the girls, and it’s been the best season I’ve coached at West Ottawa," Plewes said. "This is a good group. It was hard to get a word out after the game because there were a lot of tears."West Ottawa went undefeated (10-0) in the OK Red to win the league title and carried a 16-game win streak into Friday’s game at Jenison High School. Wyoming also had a 16-game win streak with its last loss coming to West Ottawa."The whole game, it never felt like we were winning," Wolves coach Kirk Kambestad said. "Then all of a sudden it’s over. You just want to win so bad, and you just don’t want it to end."The Panthers led 18-17 after the first half despite West Ottawa’s biggest post threat, Molly Borgman, sitting a majority of the half with two early fouls.West Ottawa then went on a 12-3 run in the first four minutes of the second to finally put some distance on the Wolves and gain a 10-point lead. Katie Rietberg led the way with two 3-pointers – the first 3s for West Ottawa in the game."Basketball is a game of runs, and we needed to continue the upswing," Panthers guard Julie Brown said. "For those couple minute,s that was how we have been playing for the last couple of weeks. I knew it wouldn’t last long because they’re a good team."Wyoming responded with a 13-1 run during the final 2 minutes, 30 seconds. That run was highlighted by three and-1 opportunities.The Panthers went on an 8-0 run to begin the fourth powered by 3s from Maddie Archer and Martinie and West Ottawa retook the lead 41-36.Brown and Martinie both finished with 10 points to lead West Ottawa.The lead didn’t last long, however, as Borgman fouled out and so did Amber Kobylski in the final three minutes of the game.Brown kept the Panthers within striking distance with a jumper that pulled West Ottawa within one with 20 seconds left.Wyoming made a free throw to set up a final play from the Panthers."I’m not going to dwell on the bad because there is so much good from this year that we have to reflect on, and that’s awesome," Brown said.